Always Reforming

Tomorrow marks the end of an era in my life.  To most it would seem like a simple, meaningless transition into a more "normal" life, but my last day at "The Luke" will be incredibly bittersweet.  St. Luke Lutheran Community is not a particularly exceptional place to work, but there's just something about it that keeps people hanging on, particularly in Dietary (for those of you who are not familiar with the nomenclature, that's a fancy word for the people who make/serve the food).  People seem to stay on staff, often working the minimum hours required, for much longer than they expected to and probably longer than they should have.  I am one such employee.  August 18 would mark 9 years of being employed at The Luke, which may not seem that long to many people, but when you're 27, spending one-third of your life at a job feels pretty significant.  I probably sound pretty melodramatic right now, I know.  Perhaps I'm just getting nostalgic in my old age...

If you Google racism, you will get two basic answers .  The primary definition given, discriminating based upon supposed racial superiority, is actually secondary, historically speaking, to the second definition given, the belief in different human races.  You see, we are actually just one human race. To disagree with that fact is racism, technically speaking.  The hatred of other races, which is quite different, flows, historically and logically, from this mistaken belief. The truth is that we all share one ancestry, as has been scientifically documented .  Racism is, therefore, not only immoral and unbiblical, but truly ignorant and imbecilic.  Nonetheless, racism persists, not simply in the South or in America generally, but throughout the world.  This racism takes many forms that span the gap between the two definitions offered above.  There are those who genuinely consider themselves superior because of the color of their skin, while others si...

Of late there has been an influx of comedians who fancy themselves political analysts.  The most controversial of these has been Stephen Colbert, but there seems to be no end of his peers ripping the current PotUS.  TV show hosts like Trevor Noah and Jimmy Kimmel appear grateful for the seemingly endless fodder he provides for today's comedy writers.  Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama were all quirky enough to be featured occasionally on the late-night talk shows, but the Trump administration seems to be setting a new precedent in this department.  While I find it annoying, I don't find it difficult to understand.  After all, we're talking about the guy from The Apprentice!  We all knew that a Trump victory would mean a media circus. What I do find frustrating is the validity the modern political comedian is being given.  When, I ask, did comedians become accepted as political experts?  Now, don't get me wrong.  Comedians have a long, respecte...

Phil Collins is by a wide margin my favorite musician of all time, so when I heard that his autobiography was being released in October of 2016, I instantly started dropping hints to my wife. You see, she is always looking for gift ideas for me in December, as my birthday falls just 12 days before Christmas.  She got the hint, and I was overjoyed when I opened it up (I can't recall whether it was my birthday or Christmas), despite not being surprised.  The book did not disappoint.   Not Dead   Yet , as the name implies, is the witty telling of an interesting and sometimes dark life of one of the foremost pop/rock icons of the 20th century (he's one of only 3 people to have sold over 100 million albums solo and with a band; he shares this distinction with the likes of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson). Whether you love his seminal "In the Air Tonight," or if you just know him from his climactic swan song "You'll Be in My Heart," you can appreciate this ...

Christians spend entirely too much time trying to make the Gospel less offensive than it is. We try to synthesize our faith with our culture so that it will be more palatable, but our Savior came declaring a Kingdom that makes demands on your lives.  One of the fundamental Kingdom principles He proclaimed is that " the last will be first, and the first last ."  Christians are so familiar with Jesus's many aphorisms that we forget just how earth-shaking they are, and, subsequently, we fail to live them out as consistently as we should.  They're wise sayings, yes, but they are so much more than that.  They are operational principles for life.   When we read Jesus's teaching, especially the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), we see that this Kingdom He proclaims reverses roles.  It flips the carnal world on it's head.  The Kingdom of Heaven plays by different rules than this world.  The world says that it's a dog-eat-dog world.  Jesus says to...

I wrote a  post about Aaron Hernandez a little while back, but due to new details , I'd like to expand on it.  If you go to the comments section of that article, you will find many cynical remarks from non-christians/atheists regarding the possibility of Aaron Hernandez being forgiven.  It's sort of your classic "Hitler-could've-been-saved-means-you're-wrong" argument.  Here were my three responses: 1) If there is no God, then murder is simply a part of the evolutionary process whereby the strong subdue the weak.  Survival of the fittest, right?  Murder would, in fact, not only being amoral, but it would actually be the greatest "good"!  It would be the epitome of what natural processes are accomplishing in our world.  In order to use the argument that grace makes our system morally nonsensical, you have to assume morality. 2) God can forgive anyone.  The point of grace is that you don't deserve it.  Jesus told his disciples that...

I recently posted a few reasons why I am becoming increasingly hesitant to call myself Reformed.   It was just something I was trying to get off my chest, but it drew more attention than I expected. Something about it clicked with many people, both in positive and negative ways.  For the sake of clarity I would like to offer a few reasons why I do still call myself Reformed.    1) It's the most accurate description of what I believe.  The Reformed Solas and doctrines of grace generally outline my theological and ethical framework.  Now, no single epithet fits my theological bent perfectly, and I suspect that I'm not alone in this.  The more you read and learn, the broader your perspective becomes and the less boxed-in you become.  Just as revelation was progressive, so too the Church's understanding of that revelation has evolved and grown.  Different categories and debates have occupied the various epochs in our history, so to say that y...

My wife has recently become obsessed with the show Catfish .  The show features Nev and Max chasing downing catfish, the former motivated by the fact that he was himself once catfished.  For those who aren't aware,  catfishing  is basically deceiving someone while carrying on a relationship, romantic or otherwise, online.  For instance, you think you've been talking to an attractive 18-year-old white girl, but you've actually been talking to a 47-year-old black dude.   Sometimes it's a con-artist trying to get money.  Sometimes it's just a lonely teenager trying to make friends.  I must admit that it is an addicting show, almost in the "I-can't-look-away-from-a-car-wreck" sense.  It's not that the show is poorly made, but rather it is the real people featured on this program that act as the spectacle from which I cannot avert my eyes. At the end of almost every episode I find myself thinking, "What is wrong with these people?"  These...